transitions

dear friends,

i am writing to you from stanford via new orleans, louisiana, dublin, ireland and san francisco, california (aka all the places i've been in the last two weeks). i was in new orleans on an alternative spring break program run through hillel at stanford, the progressive jewish alliance and the jewish funds for justice. and now that i'm back at school, i have tried really hard to come up with some kind of cohesive way to describe how i'm feeling at the moment, but the only word that seems appropriate is transition.

it was hard enough to come back to the states. i eased myself into that one quite well though, i think. i met my mom in ireland, which, as we know, is an english-speaking country but still in europe. that did not stop me from saying "merci" to the passport-control man in dublin and pretty much every waiter i've met since then. it was so nice to see my mom and have those few days with her alone. i think she secretly knew (as mothers always somehow do) that once i got back to california, i would be hit with a flurry of emails and interviews and other necessary things, so that downtime was very much appreciated. the weekend was lovely - it was st. patrick's day so there were a lot of festivities in which to partake :)

i am going to dedicate a post or two to my week in new orleans, so for now, i'll let you in on my california life since i've gotten back a few days ago. getting back to campus has been bittersweet. it has been a long few weeks and i think my exhaustion (both mental and physical) is weighing me down a bit. there are parts i like more than others - i'm slowly moving into my new room, meeting up with friends who i haven't seen all year, and watching the sunset over hoover tower while enjoying an elephant vanilla chai :) there is something, though, that i can't really pinpoint and has been getting me thinking lately. maybe it's the sense that i am somehow less independent now that i'm back on campus, or it might be the fact that i now actually have to respond to all the e-mails i had been able to just delete whilst abroad. it might be that discomfort that comes with having made a choice (for me, the choice was to stay in paris or return to stanford) and never really knowing whether that choice was right. i've been thinking a lot about paths and journeys lately, and i will sign off with a thought upon which i've been meditating...

i came back to school and found a letter from one of the wisest people i know and in it, she wrote "a path is correct for you if it is the one on which you make your way in truth" - here's to all of us living in truth with ourselves and those around us.